A bathing unit, such as a spa, typically includes various components such as a water holding receptacle, pumps to circulate water in a piping system, a heating module to heat the water, a filter system, an air blower, an ozone generator, a lighting system, and a control system for activating and managing the various parameters of the bathing unit components. Other types of bathing units having similar components include, for instance, whirlpools, hot tubs, bathtubs, therapeutic baths, and swimming pools.
Typically, the control system of a bathing unit includes a controller to which are connected the various bathing unit components. The controller is adapted to control the power supplied to each one of the connected components. The controller receives input signals from various input devices, such as for example a plurality of sensors that monitor the various components of the bathing unit and from a control panel allowing a user to control various operational settings of these components. In response to the input signals, the controller activates, or deactivates, the various bathing unit components by supplying power, or ceasing to supply power, to the components.
Usually, different components in a given bathing unit have different operating power requirements. For instance, some of the bathing unit components may require to be powered by way of a 120 volts (V) AC voltage source, while other bathing unit components may require to be powered via a 240 volts (V) AC voltage source. Similarly, different bathing unit components may be designed to operate with different maximum current draws. The current draw to operate the various bathing unit components may range, for example, from 0.1 amps (A) for an ozone generator to 20 amps (A) for a large pump. Moreover, the current draw to operate two bathing components of a same type, such as two pumps or two heating modules, may also be different for the two components. For instance, one pump may require a current draw of 12 amps (A) to operate, while another pump may require a current draw of 20 amps (A) to operate.
In order to accommodate bathing unit components having different power requirements, controllers typically include a plurality of connectors, each connector being adapted to supply power to that particular component in accordance with its power requirements. To achieve this, each connector usually includes a set of electrical contact elements, at which a certain voltage or current output will be available. For example, if a bathing unit includes one component having operating power requirements of 120 volts (V) and 12 amps (A) and another component having operating power requirements of 240 volts (V) and 20 amps (A), the controller will thus be configured to include one connector having contact elements at which an output of 120 volts (V) and 12 amps (A) will be available and another connector having contact elements at which an output of 240 volts (V) and 20 amps (A) will be available.
A deficiency of such a controller configuration is that a bathing unit installer or service person runs the risk of connecting a given bathing unit component to a wrong connector, i.e. in a connector not intended to be connected to that given component. For instance, in the above example, the component with operating power requirements of 120 volts (V) and 12 amps (A) runs the risk of being connected to the controller connector at which an output of 240 volts (V) and 20 amps (A) will be available.
A proposed solution for avoiding such erroneous connections from being made is to design the controller such that the contact elements of each one of its connectors are arranged in a distinct configuration. This can be achieved, for example, by varying the relative distances separating the contact elements on each connector or, alternatively, by arranging the contact elements of each connector in altogether different patterns. Each bathing unit component includes a connector having complementary contact elements arranged in the same distinct configuration as that of the contact elements of the controller connector to which it is intended to be connected. In that way, a controller connector having contact elements arranged in a specific configuration can only be connected to a bathing unit component connector having complementary contact elements arranged in the same specific configuration.
A deficiency of controllers and bathing unit components of the type described above is that such controllers must be designed and manufactured specifically on the basis of the type, number, and power requirements of the different bathing unit components to which it will eventually be connected. From the perspective of a controller manufacturer, this translates into non-optimal production costs or, at the very least, prevents significant economies of scale from being realized. Furthermore, sufficient amounts of inventory of each different type of connectors must be kept in stock such as to allow for the assembly and/or repair of the controllers which adds to the controller manufacturer's costs. Similarly, since the design of the connector associated to a given bathing unit component is dictated by the design of the controller connector to which it is intended to be connected to, this will entail a tailoring of the manufacturing process of that bathing unit component as well. Consequently, the manufacturer of that given bathing unit component will also experience non-optimal production costs.
Against the background described above, it appears that there is a need in the industry to provide a controller suitable for a bathing unit that alleviates at least in part the problems associated with existing controllers.